In the Dark Castle Hallsby ACWChaptersThe AwakeningHiding SpotsCorridorsShock and AweThe AwakeningChapter 1- The Awakening I woke up in a box. More of a cage actually. I opened my eyes slowly, my vision blurry as my brain started to operate normally. The first thing it did register though, was lancing pains throughout my body as cramps gripped my frame. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling at all, given that the cage was barely able to accommodate my size. I tried to jiggle around to test the degree of freedom I had in the cage, but my head spun as I did so, forcing me to stop and moan a little. A glorious headache soon announced its presence and brought along a nauseating sense of vertigo. My head was spinning so badly, it was a miracle that I hadn’t thrown up from the giddiness or the overwhelming sense of claustrophobia. After a torturous moment or so, my head righted itself and the sick feeling slowly faded away into nothingness. Gradually my body began to recover and re-orientated itself. My eyes adjusted to the dark surroundings to see where exactly I was. I must be in some storage room,for there were many wooden crates lying stacked in neat piles around my cage. The way the piles were arranged suggested that the room was of squarish dimensions. Adjacent to my prison was another metal cage, seemingly empty. A table opposite my cage had some odds and ends that I couldn't really quite make out, but otherwise there was nothing of interest. A door located to my left was left ajar, with some illumination pouring in from the gap. I felt bandages around my face, and tried to move my hooves to touch them, and found out that I couldn’t. My four hooves were being jammed under my chest and it was starting to feel the prickliness of the lack of blood circulation. The most I could do was actually just tilt my face here and there, and probably move my fore hooves to the front of my face with some effort. I tried to recollect myself; tried to make sense of what was happening and tried to remember where I am. The problem was, I couldn’t remember anything at all, except for the fact that I was a pony with some issue with my face that apparently whoever had dumped me in this cage couldn’t stand it and had to wrap it up with the bandages to avoid looking at my face. Oh, and that I was probably in deep trouble if I didn’t get out of this place pronto. My primary interest was to get out of my cage. I needed answers as to who I was, and why was I stuck in a cage. Most importantly, get out of this place and breathe some fresh air. It was getting stuffy in this store room anyway. I gave my prison a thorough examination, hoping to find a way to escape the claustrophobic cell. Apart from the fact that my cage was made up of seemingly unbreakable metal complete with thick metal bars that I could not slide my hooves through, there seemed to be no way out of my cage. A rusty padlock also held the lid of my cage in place to prevent my escape. I sighed in dismay, but perked up suddenly as I realised something. A rusty lock? True enough, upon closer inspection, the lock in question was speckled with blotches of dirty brown that contrasted sharply to the gleaming metal that still showed in some places around the key hole. It was most probably worn with age, and could probably come apart with some coaxing from my hooves. Feeling better all of a sudden, I wriggled and struggled to get my fore hooves unstuck from my body. The prickly feeling got worse as it attacked my limbs without mercy. But I didn’t care. The sweet feeling of relief can come later once I was free from the dastardly cage. As I twisted and turned, the cage groaned and scraped against the floor in response to my struggles and bumped into the cage next to mine. I stopped suddenly, mentally slapping myself that whoever did this to me could be nearby and may have heard the racket. I listened intently, straining to hear any sound of anything approaching. My heart rate had risen and I could hear it pounding in my ears. My eyes scanned the room and eyed the slightly open door, awaiting any shadow that may fleet by. No one came. At least, not yet. Trying to be more silent, I gritted my teeth to ease the pain screaming from my muscles suffering from cramps as I inched my hooves further away from my chest. With a satisfying jingle, my front hooves came free, and with that soothing relief washed over my front limbs. Now time to buck that lock to pieces. I whacked the lock with my hooves, and winced a little as the rough edges grazed my flesh a little. It didn't cut, but it stung. I suddenly thought about possible infections that may come from getting rust into the bloodstream and my mind wandered for a little bit. I really want some good horseshoes right now… I pushed the thought aside, focusing instead on freedom and and grit my teeth as I continued the painful process that eventually led to the lock breaking into two and falling onto the metal floor of my cage with a clang. YES! YES! As I stood up, I pushed past the lid and felt my blood suddenly rush from my head. I cantered uneasily for a while as I adjusted to the sudden change of blood flow. I bumped the cage next to mine and winced as I made more scraping sounds in the process. Regaining proper balance and seeing that the coast was clear, I stretched my extremities and my wings to release all the tension and further circulate blood flow. Wait, I have wings? I thought I was an earth pony? Indeed, the feathery appendages were attached to my body, and I was capable of moving them up and down, left and right. How intriguing. As I fascinated myself with the usage of my newly found body parts, a low moan bid me freeze in place. Who, or what was that?! Alarms sounded in my head, and adrenaline coursed through my body. My eyes achieved the feat of widening beyond their natural span, darting back and forth through the darkness, accessing the area for potential threats. My breathing became haggard and fogged in the darkness, and my ears strained again for the slightest sound. The bandages wrapped around my head did not help my sight at all, and it amplified the sound of my breathing and hampered my hearing, keeping me on edge. My face was getting very hot and stuffy. The moan came again. It was a gravelly sound and could have been made by someone on their death bed. Come on, show yourself! I’ll buck you to pieces! I tensed up my muscles, feeling the tendons coil as they prepared to show their tender loving care to whatever tried to give me the wrong meaning of a warm welcome. “Hhellpp…mmeeee…” I swear I must be hearing things. There’s no one else here, right? Cold sweat formed at the base of my neck and gathered between my shoulders, furthering my discomfort. It felt as if something was teasing me with audio hallucinations and was stroking my back. Fear gave way to shock as my silent question was answered by a feeble tapping of a hoof against metal. The other cage! I walked over to the cage, amazed by how much I had paced while on the alert. I could make out the faint outline of another pony in the cage, probably in the same state as I was- cramped, nauseous, delirious, and the like. The poor lighting didn’t show much, but as I drew near to the cage, once again, my emotions took another turn. For the worse. Shock turned to horror and disgust as I saw the poor soul held in the cage. Or what was left of him. Or her. I don’t know!! Whatever it was!!! "Oh...buck..." As those words left my mouth, that...thing turned what...I assumed to be its head, toward me. It did have the basic anatomy of what a pony should have- head, chest, tail and limbs. But I realised, to my horror, its head had been brutally split open, one eye missing, the other a puffy version of a normal eye. Its mouth had been supposedly stiched shut, but a few of the stichings had come lose and it had managed to talk to me through what was left of its mouth. But what was utterly disgusting and unnatural were that where several parts should have been, they were not, or worse, replaced with… other… parts… from other… I tore my eyes away from the creature, retching as my stomach attempted to regurgitate an imaginary meal, unable to take the sight of such a monstrosity. Still the image had been branded into my head that it was almost impossible to forget it. Oh buck! ”Plleaseee… I beg y-y-ouuu….help meeee....” Hiding SpotsChapter 2- Hiding Spots “Who…are y-y-ou?” My voice shook as I reluctantly looked at the creature’s form. It bore multiple stitchings, and puncture marks dotted its body which gave me the impression that there were ants crawling up its body waiting to devour it. In the place of a back hoof was a vile looking black blade that was caked with bits of gore and blood. The creature’s flank was lined with multiple unicorn horns protruding in all directions. Deep gashes which had scabbed over ran parallel to the creature’s back. This was sick. But what piqued my curiosity and my disgust was an appendage which I had no memory of seeing before. It looked like a hoof that had been shaved clean, but at the end of it were little jointed bony nubs which resembled something like talons from a griffin, but with much shorter and blunter claws. It had been crudely sewn to replace one of the front hoofs of the creature, but was now dangling loosely from a fleshy stub. Seems like whoever had been doing this sickening acts liked sewing a lot. I forced myself not to think about what could have happened to me if I ever met the same fate as this one, and narrowly avoided dry heaving a second time. Even though it was horrendous to look at, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sympathy for this poor soul. As I bent down to talk to it, it twitched in obvious agony and coughed and spluttered as it spoke in its dreadful voice. “You… esssscaped?” Its bulging eye twitched, as if it didn’t believe that a pony was outside the cage. Did it long for freedom too? I felt no reason to deny the creature the obvious. So I silently said “Yeah, I suppose so. Do you know any way to get out of this place?” The creature did its best imitation of a frown on its mangled face, trying to remember something that I could not. He wheezed, “We… We are in the castle dungeons… He…he… made the best use of it… heh-ACCK!” Crimson blood splattered out of his cage, which I managed to avoid staining my hooves. I urged him to carry on, desperate to leave this horrid place. But something struck me as odd… “Who’s he? What happened to Princess Celestia and Luna?” I barely managed to control the speed of my questions, not wanting to overwhelm the creature. “He… I forgot what his name was… tried to so something… to everypony… I don’t knoo-ACK!” Another generous helping of blood flowed out of his half open mouth, dribbling over his face. “don’t… know… what he was doing… I… was only one of the guardspony around this place…” I nodded slowly, letting the information sink in slowly. So I was in the Royal Canterlot Castle, stuck in the dungeons which had not been used by even the princesses themselves, but had now been turned into an area for twisted experiments. But for what? Curiosity burned within me despite the fact that I wouldn’t like to hear the purpose for these atrocious experimentations. I pressed the former guardspony to carry on with his account. “Princess Celestia… Luna… don’t know if they… escaped… or…or…” The guardspony started to choke, and couldn’t continue. I genuinely felt sorry for this fellow, and I said in a low voice “Don’t worry, I’m sure they’re fine. They are the princesses right?” He didn’t acknowledge my question, choosing instead to skip the matter and continue on. “There…should be a map around the… the…wall… of the main dungeon hall… of the entire castle…” The guardspony stopped to take a few laboured breaths, his eye twitching as he did so. “the experiments…required live ponies… and other ‘foreigners’…”. Even though he didn’t have much of a face left, I could see that the guardspony was filled with hatred as he only eye twitched again while he spat out the word “foreigners”. Who were these “foreigners”? Was the one responsible for this insanity and mania associated with them? I had to find out more. Before he could carry on, hoofsteps sounded outside the door! Both of us gasped in mutual shock and fear. He frantically tapped the cage to draw my attention. “There’s not much… time left! Somepony’s going to come here and find you! Quick... hide yourself, and don’t bother about mee...” I didn’t bother disagreeing with him. I was fearful for my life, and bidding him farewell and thanking him for his help, I switched my attention to the dark room around me. I scanned high and low looking for a suitable hiding spot. But all I could see were only the piles of boxes everywhere, in every corner! Anxiety rose in me like high waters in a flood. My vision started to blur slightly with the rush of adrenaline. Even if I were to rely on the shadows in the room, I doubted that the colour of my coat, a light blue, could blend in with the dark shadows! The hoofsteps drew closer, and closer, signalling my impending doom. Each step reverberated in my mind, amplified a hundredfold as I struggled to find any crack, any hole that I could wriggle my way into to avoid detection! I wracked my brains and strained my eyes, hoping that a sudden flash of inspiration could save me, or that some hiding spot would reveal itself in the last minute! There was nothing nearby that I could use to defend myself with, and I doubt hooves alone could defeat the oppressor slowly making his way here! Come on, come on!!!! The sounds were still getting closer to the door… I could almost see the door opening to reveal my tormentor… My breathing had increased in frequency, becoming louder as my breath flowed in and out of the sheets of bandages wrapped around my face. It sounded like an alarm imploring me to speed up, to quickly find a safe spot away from prying eyes…. Desperate, I looked around the room again. Another pile of boxes, another pile of boxes, a table full of odds and ends, a cabinet… A cabinet!!!! At the far end of the room, hidden by the shadows, was a cabinet that seemed to be in disuse. I mentally slapped myself for having missed that out when I had examined the room earlier. Immediately I rushed over to the cabinet, slid one door open and thanked my luck that it was empty, and squeezed myself inside. But a problem soon arose as my wings got me stuck in the small gap! No wings, don’t get me killed! Buck it! I twisted and turned; I wormed and I wiggled, but I was still stuck fast! The hoofsteps were barely just beyond the door and were drawing nearer still! Fear didn’t give me wings to fly, instead it gave me one final burst of strength to cram myself into the musty smelling cramped space of the cabinet. I was going to get another bout of claustrophobia and dizziness, but it beat being stuck in that cage awaiting whatever fate that may have come with whoever was going to come in soon. At least I knew wouldn’t have cramps in my hooves. As I pulled the cabinet door closed, the door to the room creaked open. I left the cabinet door open a crack to hear what was going on. I couldn’t have seen what was going on, because my vision would have been obstructed by the table. “Ah… it seems like you are awake…” A strangely alluring female voice sang. I was utterly confused. The guardspony mentioned that it was a ‘he’ who was causing this mayhem, but this female, whoever she was, clearly seemed to be in charge. Was the guardspony delirious when he spoke to me? “WHERE DID HE GO?!” The voiced suddenly became loud and shrill. It hurt my ears and I winced. Time to think and process information gathered was yanked away as I devoted my attention to what was happening outside. There was no need to see the guardspony to know that he was afraid. “Pppll—ease, I swear I didn’t see him!” I silently thanked him again for his help. “When I woke up, he wasn’t around! T---the ccccage wassss….already empty!” Silence. Somepony did say that silence is golden. But the silence now was unnerving. And like fragile glass, silence can be easily broken. The mare, I assumed, laughed. But she hadn’t heard a good joke. Nor had she seen a funny comic strip. This was maniacal laughter. And it rang and echoed in the dark room, striking fear into my heart and being. She stopped, like a comedian pausing for effect for the audience to enjoy a good laugh. And then she continued in her eerie sing-song manner. “Oh, so that’s the case then? Oh well, I suppose I’d just have to do without you, since you are of no use to me ANYMORE!” The sudden change in her voice nearly caused me to jump and bump the cabinet and almost gave away my position. There was clanging of metal against metal. Tension hung thick in the air. And then the screams began. Throughout it all, laughter rang in harmony with the screams, creating a sickening symphonic cacophony. Rhythm was provided by something very hard striking against flesh and breaking bone with audible cracks and slaps. This was insane! I grit my teeth, and closed my eyes, hoping that somehow, this was just a twisted nightmare conjured by my sub-conscious in my sleep and hoping that I would wake elsewhere where the sun shone bright. But the screams and laughter would break my concentration, jarring me back from fantasy into gruesome reality. I whimpered. And then, mercifully, I passed out. CorridorsWhen I came to, everything was still as dark as before. It was getting really hard to breathe inside the cabinet. How long had I passed out? Memories from earlier came flooding back. Escaping from my cage. Finding a fellow prisoner beside me in another cage. Finding him deformed beyond imagination. The guardpony’s warnings. And then, some mare, entered the room and ended his life. Screams of pain and terror echoed in my head which had chilled me to no end. I felt sorrow building up in me and silently prayed that the guardpony have a safe passage in the afterlife. Even though he was tortured to death, he never did utter a single word of my whereabouts. Even though there was no order around here, he still upheld his loyalty to the very end. I silently slid the door of the cabinet open to view the room. Nopony was around, so I decided it was relatively safe to leave my safe zone. The room was now dimly lit by a lantern left on the table. Although the light it gave was not strong, it still relieved me to have a light source that could help me find my way out of this dreadful place. After a few moments of contorting my body into ways beyond its natural capability, I finally stepped out from my hiding spot. I stretched my appendages to get the blood flowing again, pins and needles prickling across my body. I suddenly visualised the guardpony’s body and I quickly shook my head to clear the image, not wanting to distract myself. The coppery smell of blood hung heavily in the air as I made my way to his cage. However, the cage was empty when I finally examined it. Only the blood and gibbets spattered across the interior of the cage and leaking out by the sides and onto the floor indicated that the previous occupant had suffered a cruel death. I closed my eyes, thankful that I had been spared the agony of hearing the nightmarish sounds throughout my hiding, and that his battered remains had been cleared. At least you got put out of your misery and got a ticket out of this place… Manoeuvring past the streams of blood on the floor, my hoof came into contact with something cold, hard and sticky. Flinching, I kicked the object across the floor, clattering into the shadows untouched by the light. Oh no. Cursing my clumsiness, I went on the alert, waiting for something to happen or someone to come and investigate the noise. But there was none. I breathed normally again. I went to investigate the object that I had managed to kick halfway across the room in surprise and terror. I trotted across the room to pick up the lantern first. Reaching the table, I could now clearly see that the ‘odds and ends’ were actually pieces of fragmented skulls. I could make out smashed pony skulls, staring soullessly at me and running chills down my back. But there were other bones that did not seem natural to pony physiology. I don’t think ponies had sharp teeth, right? And they should have longer faces too right? Whatever, I’ll worry about that later. I examined the lantern. There was a long strap attached to the base of the lamp that allowed me to slip it around my neck. I noted that the lamp seemed to be magically enchanted since no oil flowed inside of it, and that there was a knob that allowed me to control the brightness of the light. Twisting it showed that the lamp was currently operating at its maximum brightness, which irked me a little. At least I didn’t have to worry about running out of oil or burning my skin. Walking cautiously across the room, and following the trails of blood that marked its path, I came upon the object. It was large hammer, with traces of gore still laced around its large metal head. But this hammer clearly wasn’t designed to whack in nails; it was a broad squarish mallet that was lined with multiple vicious-looking spikes on both ends. The handle was made out of wood that was caked with dry blood. I picked it up with my right hoof to test its weight. It was as heavy as a broomstick, but it would mean that I could defend myself better if the need ever arose. Some relief washed over me as I wasn’t defenceless. Yet, I hoped that I didn’t have to use this. Stowing it under my wing, and giving the room one final glance over for anything useful, I stepped out of the door…. And into the unknown. The corridor I stood in was illuminated by 3 torches set a good distance apart. Wooden jail doors lined up on my left and right, unmoving and unrevealing as they were meant to be designed. A rotting smell hit my nostrils, and the faint hum of flies moving at crack speeds sounded in my ears. Ahead, the corridor morphed into a T-junction, where what appeared to be a painted sign hung from the ceiling, dimly illuminated by the torches. I took one step. And another, slowly increasing my pace. My hoofs clopped and echoed in the long corridor. I focused on the sign ahead of me, trying to make sense of the markings on them. The stench grew stronger, but at least the buzzing had died down somewhat. The lamp bounced gently against my chest as I moved forward unsteadily, trying to control my breathing to minimise my intake of the putrid air. Finally, I reached the sign where I could take a closer look. Blood had been smeared across the white painted carvings, but nonetheless I was still able to make out “<--Main Jail HouseLaboratories” and “--> Main hall”. The messy scratching out of the words "main jail house" and subsequent replacement with "laboratories" piqued my interest, but I decided that obtaining the map of the castle was of upmost importance and probably safer too. I turned right, eyes peeled and ears pricked. The corridors widened and curved as I carried on walking. No torches lit the way though, and gradually, the darkness seemed to consume me as I continued on. I thought about everything that had happened so far. I still had no clue as to what my identity was, but I did know that something terrible has happened to the inhabitants of this castle, judging from what I saw from the predicament of the guardpony and the mare who was clearly insane. I also had no clue to what the guardpony meant when he mentioned “foreigners”, or what he meant by “made the best use of them”, or when he talked about obtaining live subjects. Somehow, thinking about that caused me to shake involuntarily. I hope I didn’t run into anyone else. I just want to get out of this place alive, and go somewhere safe. This place might just turn out to be a living hell… The lamp guided my path as I treaded carefully along the corridor, passing a few tables and chairs, not that they were still usable anyway. Most of the furniture had been broken down and splintered, leaving piles of useless and mouldy wood to decorate the wide corridor. I also realised that the floor had become less rough and had been designed using smoother square tiles, compared to the dungeon areas where the floor was an uncomfortable cobblestone. I must be approaching the main hall. Moonlight poured somewhere from further up from the left. Something also glinted in the darkness up ahead, beyond the corridor I was walking in. Interesting, but should I investigate it? I decided to leave it be, and to continue my search for the castle map. The main hall poorly lit by moonlight trickling in by a barred window above large wooden double doors. By the doors was a tattered scrap of paper, and upon further investigation, revealed it to be the map I desired. Well, part of it actually. While the map showed the way around the maze-like dungeons (Did Equestria really need so many cells?), the part showing the layout of the upper floors were missing entirely, and with that, any possible route I might have been able to consider. I noted with mild amusement that the dungeon layout roughly resembled that of Celestia’s cutie mark. The main jail house formed the central circle while cell blocks like where I had come from formed the wavy rays originating from the central circle. My block, however, was conveniently located near the only exit. At least it’s a start, I thought grimly as I tried the large oaken doors. They groaned as I pushed against them, but apart from moving only a few hairs, they wouldn’t budge. There was a keyhole in the doors around the height of my neck, so I had to find a key to proceed, but where? The shining object in the darkness, could it be it? I shook my head. It would be too easy, but it wouldn’t hurt if I checked it out. I approached the area where I thought I saw the glint and let the light of my lamp fall to the ground. Then, I started crawling around.Tile after tile of stone slabs only came into the little circle cast by the glow of the lamp as I ambled lamely like a dog trying to sniff out where it last buried its bone. The occasional crack in stone or stain showed up, but nothing unusual popped up for a while. Found it! Jutting out from a crack in the floor was a silver key. It produced an eerie glow as my lamp shone over it, glinting brightly even in the poor illumination. I gently used my hooves to tease it out of the crack, as if the slightest rough motion would cause it to shatter into a million unidentifiable pieces. After all, it would be my only way out of here. I think. Trying not to get my hopes too high, I went back to the giant doors and tried to fit the key into the lock. No such luck; the key was too small to fit into the lock. I cursed my stupidity for not having realised that earlier. I wondered which lock did the key turn in. Turning the key in my hooves, I noticed that faintly scratched on the long handle of the key were the words “Jailhouse Key”. I gulped audibly as I fearfully recounted the image of the guardpony before his demise. Who knew what horrors may lie beyond that block? In denial, and trying my luck again, I tried to jam the key into the keyhole again. Only to meet with the same result as before: Nothing. Guess that means I gotta head to the laboratories then, maybe I'll find something useful there... Sitting on my haunches, I took out the tattered map and took a good look at the route I had to take to get to the laboratories/Jailhouse block. I didn't have to take too much time though, there was already a trail marked in red leading from my block to the labs. Odd... I turned the map over and was surprised to see a message scrawled on the back in the same blood red ink. It was addressed to me: Hello there! I hope you had a great nap! However, I don't appreciate ponies who don't show me gratitude in taking care of them, after all, wasn't your cage the most wonderful place to sleep in? So, I made sure that you learn a good lesson about manners and decided to lock you in the dungeons for a little while. Don't worry! You can find the key to unlock these big doors in the labs! Be careful though, there are many surprises waiting for you! I'll be waiting for you when you're ready! Love --L Well, at least I know that mare has clearly lost it, and her name was L. She was nice enough to warn me about the stuff ahead though. Grimly, I shoved the map and key under my right wing, and took out the hammer, hoping to get some comfort from cradling the weapon. I hope you're as useful as you look I turned to face the corridor where I came from and started walking. Once again I was consumed by the darkness. Shock and AweAfter what felt like hours crawling through thick inky blackness with a dim lantern to light my way, I finally reached the central prison block. According to the scrap of paper that served as a map, the central prison block was a large circular structure with only one entrance. Several smaller cells were located inside, and I assumed that they were once designed to house the most dangerous criminals in Equestria. Now, I shuddered to think what they were used for now. Like the exit from the dungeons, the entrance to the central prison block was guarded by two large oaken doors. But while the exit was in excellent condition despite the apparent lack of use of this place, the doors to the entrance had succumbed to the damp atmosphere of the dungeon, decaying and rotting. One door hinged awkwardly from its frame, but revealed nothing inside the block apart from thick darkness. Two lanterns hung from hooks at the sides of the doors, the only light sources lighting my field of vision apart from my own. I tried to push open the doors, but they held fast. Even the broken door wouldn’t move a bit. I thought about knocking down the doors using the mallet, but I started feeling uneasy about that idea. She said there was going to be ‘surprises’ waiting for me, so should I risk it? Buck it, it’s either getting in there and making my way out of here, or I’ll probably end up like the doors to the central block, rotting and decaying. I slid the mallet from my wing to my left right hoof and gave it a few good swings, testing its weight and my strength. Here goes nothing. Gripping the mallet with both hoofs, I brought the mallet high above my head, and swung it onto the rotting half open door. The door crumbled with a loud crash, sending clouds of sawdust and splinters flying in every direction, pricking my coat. I coughed and sputtered as the sawdust settled down, shaking off the bits of rotten wood that had landed on me as I did. I had made a sizable hole in the doors, and part of the rotting doors had collapsed as it did so, creating a way for me to enter into the central prison block. I pricked my ears, trying to sense any movement that may be coming my way, tensing myself should I suddenly face some monstrosity so that I would be able to spring away from danger. But danger did not rear its ugly head, and so stepping over the remains of the door, I entered the prison block. Visibility was worse; I could only make out a tight circle around me. But a closer inspection of the wall near where the doors stood revealed a wick- those sort that one would find on candles. But I realised that these were specially enchanted from its ever-so-faint-glow, so one may light this wicks as many times as he likes. Lifting off the lantern off my neck, I unscrewed the top and fed the wick to the enchanted flame. As soon as the flame touched the wick, the flame immediately started running across the wick, travelling across the diameter of the cell block, leaving a fiery trail at its wake. It would have been rather pleasing to watch, had I been under less dire situations. I screwed back the lid on my lantern and hung it around my neck, watching the spectacular display of pyrotechnics. The light curved up and down in a series of bright mountains and valleys. At the end of each peak, a blue torch was lit which bathed the room with an eerie light. Each light then revealed a large capsule with glass sheaths covering metallic foundations, with many pieces of complicated machinery that I could not put my hoof on. Wires jutted out of said machinery, and the glass sheaths were bloody and cracked in many places. And then the fire lit its way to the centre of the block, and illuminated a bright blue light housed within a large glass cylinder. The sudden glare caused me to flinch and squeeze my eyes shut as I had been temporarily struck blind by the intensity of the light. Slowly I opened my eyes… And wished I hadn’t. The entire place had seemingly borne witness to a disturbing ritual. Beds that were designed with thick restraints adorning their frames were scattered across the room, dried blood coating almost every spot on them and multiple places on the floor. They surrounded a small wooden rectangular examination table, similarly coated with giblets and dried blood. Multiple medical solutions and instruments were arranged haphazardly on the table, none of them having been cleaned nor used in a long time. A small notebook was placed at one corner of the table, its pages dog-earred from a probably long service. Pages were folded and stuck in all directions. My attention then directed to the capsule structures with the glass sheaths. They were surprisingly free of any foul substance, despite their proximity to the area of the carnage. However, the leftmost one had a large figure lying face down on the floor. So strange it was that I didn’t know how to describe it, since it was unlike anything I’ve seen before. It didn’t seem to be alive, so I left it alone and consulted the small book upon the table. I powered down the lantern as I did so, seeing that there was no need for it for now. The book revealed a small card containing several pictures of the most bizarre creatures I have ever seen. A few resembled ponies, for they did have limbs belonging to ponies, but the rest of their bodies were… something alien… Alien… The guardspony did mention something about aliens. This perked up my interest as I tried my best to read through the contents of the small book, a daunting task since each page was heavily stained a dirty crimson colour. I have been very much inspired by Greek Mythology in the creation of the perfect symbiote in order to achieve my true goal. Below this short paragraph is a description of each creature which I will attempt to recreate before starting upon what I believe would benefit both humans and ponies or possibly other races alike. Centaurs- a creature with a man’s upper body, and a ponies lower body, inclusive of all four limbs. Retains the human’s mind and gives it full control over the rest of the body, including the pony’s lower body. This would be a large challenge as I have to devise a way to conjoin the two large masses together in the quickest time possible. However, with ******** (unreadable due to bloodstains) gic, I should have relative success in holding major organs together and quickly stitching up the bodies together. At the same time with the same magic, according to previous tests performed by me, I should be able to manipulate the blood types such that the human’s and pony’s do not reject each other. Minotaurs- a somewhat peculiar goal because it does not contribute directly towards my final goal. However, I have not forgotten about the minority bull population that had their origins in Appleloosa. According the Greek mythology, it was supposed to be an aggressive creature with the head of the bull and body of a human. No doubt this would be a challenge as the bull’s neck is certainly much larger than what a human body can accommodate. However, having her by my side is certainly paying off for her magic may most probably be able to solve this physically impossible task. Magic, when incorporated into science, is most wonderful. Fauns- Like centaurs, except that they only include the pony’s hind legs. This is a slightly more delicate operation to handle as the human body must be able to establish a sense of balance, if not mobility will not be attained. However, if I should ever reach this stage, my abilities to handle magical operations and stitchings should be competent enough. (Note to self- In order to maintain anaesthetic levels due to difficulties in synthesising and secrecy, it may be useful to implement thick restraints to hold down each subject, as well as either cutting out tongues or stitching their mouths shut.) Brony- The ultimate goal of this series of experiments, the one true symbiotic sentient life form…. (The rest is undecipherable) I paused my reading, shaken and disturbed by the manuscript. My mind was racing to gather all the information I had gathered so far. These humans, were also taken together with ponies for these twisted experiments? Who was doing this? No doubt it must be that mare who had imprisoned me in the first place; I must have been selected to be the next test subject, and the guardpony was her ragdoll to try out her various disgusting procedures! But what was this ‘ultimate goal’, called a ‘brony’? No doubt, that going by the list of monstrosities listed in this book, a brony might just be another hideous creature. Flipping through the text, I hoped to gain some answers. Instead, it came to rest on a page where a cut out in the shape of a key was inserted. Intrigued, I pulled out the cut out. There were a few words scribbled in red on the wrinkled paper “It’s in his head; but don’t lose your head!” It ended off with a happy face childishly scrawled on the remainder space on the paper. What does it mean? Who’s ‘head’ was it refering to? I thought. There was movement to my left. I whipped my head to see the body slumped on the floor stirring. I thought it was dead! The creature fitted the description of one of the creatures mentioned in the book. It's a bucking Minotaur!, I thought as I watched the figure rise to its feet, as slowly stretched out to its full height, a good 3 heads above me. The eerie blue light glinted off its dangerously long and curvy horns protruding from the top of its head, and illuminated sparks of primal hate and fury in its eyes. Clouds were blown out of its nose in loud grunts. It tottered a little, but regained its balance immediately. I was still rooted to the same spot with a mixture of both awe and horror, mouth slightly agape at this sight. And it started charging towards me! Beds bounced off and flew in every direction as the Minotaur charged towards me, roaring as it did so! Its human hands were raised and clawing towards me, ready to grab me. Its long legs took long strides that kicked the heavy metal beds away to clear a path toward me! Come on, move! My legs were slow to respond, and it was only by the slightest of margins that I managed to duck out of the way of the Minotaur’s flaying hands! Nimbly, I flew over the table, and realised that the Minotaur was blocking my exit from the room! With a terrible roar, the Minotaur shook and glared at me, hell bent on killing. It lowered its great head and aimed the lethal horns at me. It was going to gore me to death! I threw myself to the side as the Minotaur displayed stunning versatility by vaulting over the table, knocking over multiple instruments and medical solutions as it did so. Luck seemed to be on my side as the Minotaur shaved past my coat, and made contact with the rough bricks of the prison wall. Dust shook off the old ceiling as the room shook violently from the impact. It gave a cry of pain, and tottered about, disoriented, clutching its wounded head as it did so. The manuscript! I must have it! It was lying on the floor a few metres away from me, open and pages sticking out. I leapt at it, one hoof outstretched to snatch it away. Bang! Pain exploded from my chest as the Minotaur displayed a frighteningly fast recovery and butted me in the chest. Disoriented, I crashed into the sea of metal beds, pain now shooting through every side of me. I slumped onto the ground, breathing hard. Come on, move! MOVE! But I couldn't summon the strength to push myself up from the bloody ground. Pain lanced through my body as I tried to exert my strength to lift myself off the ground. I could only watch as the Minotaur stomped towards me, each step causing the ground to tremble. It’s black eyes locked onto my terrified ones, clouds shooting out of each nostril with each powerful breath it took. For a disgusting creature like this, it had pearly white teeth that showed as it bared them at me. I realised some of them had been sharpened to a razor sharpness. I could almost feel those terrible choppers land on my soft neck, ripping out the tender flesh and cutting tendons and muscle fibres within and severed blood vessels spurting its contents in all directions… A meaty hand grabbed me by the neck, hefting me up easily to the Minotaur’s eye-level. My air supply was suddenly cut shot as I met the black eyes that seemed to say “Time to meet your doom, pony!” I flayed uselessly against the air, my hind legs thrusting at nothing, and my front hooves trying their best to prise the thick fingers off my neck. I gagged and twisted, but to no avail. My vision was beginning to dim when I suddenly remembered the hammer stowed in my wings. Bringing my right hoof to my wings, I released my hold on the hammer and let it fall to my hoof. With a final desperate burst of energy, I swung the hammer towards the creature! With a sharp cry of pain, the Minotaur relinquished its hold on me, and I fell into a heap onto the ground. I clutched my neck, coughing as I fought to regain my breath. The book lay to my side, and I grabbed it. The creature still howled in pain, and I saw that my strike had caused the hammer to become lodged in its right eye. Blood oozed in copious amounts and dribbled down its face, and the Minotaur threw its arms about and stomped around in a blind rage to quell the pain. But where was to the key to the exit?
The AwakeningChapter 1- The Awakening I woke up in a box. More of a cage actually. I opened my eyes slowly, my vision blurry as my brain started to operate normally. The first thing it did register though, was lancing pains throughout my body as cramps gripped my frame. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling at all, given that the cage was barely able to accommodate my size. I tried to jiggle around to test the degree of freedom I had in the cage, but my head spun as I did so, forcing me to stop and moan a little. A glorious headache soon announced its presence and brought along a nauseating sense of vertigo. My head was spinning so badly, it was a miracle that I hadn’t thrown up from the giddiness or the overwhelming sense of claustrophobia. After a torturous moment or so, my head righted itself and the sick feeling slowly faded away into nothingness. Gradually my body began to recover and re-orientated itself. My eyes adjusted to the dark surroundings to see where exactly I was. I must be in some storage room,for there were many wooden crates lying stacked in neat piles around my cage. The way the piles were arranged suggested that the room was of squarish dimensions. Adjacent to my prison was another metal cage, seemingly empty. A table opposite my cage had some odds and ends that I couldn't really quite make out, but otherwise there was nothing of interest. A door located to my left was left ajar, with some illumination pouring in from the gap. I felt bandages around my face, and tried to move my hooves to touch them, and found out that I couldn’t. My four hooves were being jammed under my chest and it was starting to feel the prickliness of the lack of blood circulation. The most I could do was actually just tilt my face here and there, and probably move my fore hooves to the front of my face with some effort. I tried to recollect myself; tried to make sense of what was happening and tried to remember where I am. The problem was, I couldn’t remember anything at all, except for the fact that I was a pony with some issue with my face that apparently whoever had dumped me in this cage couldn’t stand it and had to wrap it up with the bandages to avoid looking at my face. Oh, and that I was probably in deep trouble if I didn’t get out of this place pronto. My primary interest was to get out of my cage. I needed answers as to who I was, and why was I stuck in a cage. Most importantly, get out of this place and breathe some fresh air. It was getting stuffy in this store room anyway. I gave my prison a thorough examination, hoping to find a way to escape the claustrophobic cell. Apart from the fact that my cage was made up of seemingly unbreakable metal complete with thick metal bars that I could not slide my hooves through, there seemed to be no way out of my cage. A rusty padlock also held the lid of my cage in place to prevent my escape. I sighed in dismay, but perked up suddenly as I realised something. A rusty lock? True enough, upon closer inspection, the lock in question was speckled with blotches of dirty brown that contrasted sharply to the gleaming metal that still showed in some places around the key hole. It was most probably worn with age, and could probably come apart with some coaxing from my hooves. Feeling better all of a sudden, I wriggled and struggled to get my fore hooves unstuck from my body. The prickly feeling got worse as it attacked my limbs without mercy. But I didn’t care. The sweet feeling of relief can come later once I was free from the dastardly cage. As I twisted and turned, the cage groaned and scraped against the floor in response to my struggles and bumped into the cage next to mine. I stopped suddenly, mentally slapping myself that whoever did this to me could be nearby and may have heard the racket. I listened intently, straining to hear any sound of anything approaching. My heart rate had risen and I could hear it pounding in my ears. My eyes scanned the room and eyed the slightly open door, awaiting any shadow that may fleet by. No one came. At least, not yet. Trying to be more silent, I gritted my teeth to ease the pain screaming from my muscles suffering from cramps as I inched my hooves further away from my chest. With a satisfying jingle, my front hooves came free, and with that soothing relief washed over my front limbs. Now time to buck that lock to pieces. I whacked the lock with my hooves, and winced a little as the rough edges grazed my flesh a little. It didn't cut, but it stung. I suddenly thought about possible infections that may come from getting rust into the bloodstream and my mind wandered for a little bit. I really want some good horseshoes right now… I pushed the thought aside, focusing instead on freedom and and grit my teeth as I continued the painful process that eventually led to the lock breaking into two and falling onto the metal floor of my cage with a clang. YES! YES! As I stood up, I pushed past the lid and felt my blood suddenly rush from my head. I cantered uneasily for a while as I adjusted to the sudden change of blood flow. I bumped the cage next to mine and winced as I made more scraping sounds in the process. Regaining proper balance and seeing that the coast was clear, I stretched my extremities and my wings to release all the tension and further circulate blood flow. Wait, I have wings? I thought I was an earth pony? Indeed, the feathery appendages were attached to my body, and I was capable of moving them up and down, left and right. How intriguing. As I fascinated myself with the usage of my newly found body parts, a low moan bid me freeze in place. Who, or what was that?! Alarms sounded in my head, and adrenaline coursed through my body. My eyes achieved the feat of widening beyond their natural span, darting back and forth through the darkness, accessing the area for potential threats. My breathing became haggard and fogged in the darkness, and my ears strained again for the slightest sound. The bandages wrapped around my head did not help my sight at all, and it amplified the sound of my breathing and hampered my hearing, keeping me on edge. My face was getting very hot and stuffy. The moan came again. It was a gravelly sound and could have been made by someone on their death bed. Come on, show yourself! I’ll buck you to pieces! I tensed up my muscles, feeling the tendons coil as they prepared to show their tender loving care to whatever tried to give me the wrong meaning of a warm welcome. “Hhellpp…mmeeee…” I swear I must be hearing things. There’s no one else here, right? Cold sweat formed at the base of my neck and gathered between my shoulders, furthering my discomfort. It felt as if something was teasing me with audio hallucinations and was stroking my back. Fear gave way to shock as my silent question was answered by a feeble tapping of a hoof against metal. The other cage! I walked over to the cage, amazed by how much I had paced while on the alert. I could make out the faint outline of another pony in the cage, probably in the same state as I was- cramped, nauseous, delirious, and the like. The poor lighting didn’t show much, but as I drew near to the cage, once again, my emotions took another turn. For the worse. Shock turned to horror and disgust as I saw the poor soul held in the cage. Or what was left of him. Or her. I don’t know!! Whatever it was!!! "Oh...buck..." As those words left my mouth, that...thing turned what...I assumed to be its head, toward me. It did have the basic anatomy of what a pony should have- head, chest, tail and limbs. But I realised, to my horror, its head had been brutally split open, one eye missing, the other a puffy version of a normal eye. Its mouth had been supposedly stiched shut, but a few of the stichings had come lose and it had managed to talk to me through what was left of its mouth. But what was utterly disgusting and unnatural were that where several parts should have been, they were not, or worse, replaced with… other… parts… from other… I tore my eyes away from the creature, retching as my stomach attempted to regurgitate an imaginary meal, unable to take the sight of such a monstrosity. Still the image had been branded into my head that it was almost impossible to forget it. Oh buck! ”Plleaseee… I beg y-y-ouuu….help meeee....”
Hiding SpotsChapter 2- Hiding Spots “Who…are y-y-ou?” My voice shook as I reluctantly looked at the creature’s form. It bore multiple stitchings, and puncture marks dotted its body which gave me the impression that there were ants crawling up its body waiting to devour it. In the place of a back hoof was a vile looking black blade that was caked with bits of gore and blood. The creature’s flank was lined with multiple unicorn horns protruding in all directions. Deep gashes which had scabbed over ran parallel to the creature’s back. This was sick. But what piqued my curiosity and my disgust was an appendage which I had no memory of seeing before. It looked like a hoof that had been shaved clean, but at the end of it were little jointed bony nubs which resembled something like talons from a griffin, but with much shorter and blunter claws. It had been crudely sewn to replace one of the front hoofs of the creature, but was now dangling loosely from a fleshy stub. Seems like whoever had been doing this sickening acts liked sewing a lot. I forced myself not to think about what could have happened to me if I ever met the same fate as this one, and narrowly avoided dry heaving a second time. Even though it was horrendous to look at, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sympathy for this poor soul. As I bent down to talk to it, it twitched in obvious agony and coughed and spluttered as it spoke in its dreadful voice. “You… esssscaped?” Its bulging eye twitched, as if it didn’t believe that a pony was outside the cage. Did it long for freedom too? I felt no reason to deny the creature the obvious. So I silently said “Yeah, I suppose so. Do you know any way to get out of this place?” The creature did its best imitation of a frown on its mangled face, trying to remember something that I could not. He wheezed, “We… We are in the castle dungeons… He…he… made the best use of it… heh-ACCK!” Crimson blood splattered out of his cage, which I managed to avoid staining my hooves. I urged him to carry on, desperate to leave this horrid place. But something struck me as odd… “Who’s he? What happened to Princess Celestia and Luna?” I barely managed to control the speed of my questions, not wanting to overwhelm the creature. “He… I forgot what his name was… tried to so something… to everypony… I don’t knoo-ACK!” Another generous helping of blood flowed out of his half open mouth, dribbling over his face. “don’t… know… what he was doing… I… was only one of the guardspony around this place…” I nodded slowly, letting the information sink in slowly. So I was in the Royal Canterlot Castle, stuck in the dungeons which had not been used by even the princesses themselves, but had now been turned into an area for twisted experiments. But for what? Curiosity burned within me despite the fact that I wouldn’t like to hear the purpose for these atrocious experimentations. I pressed the former guardspony to carry on with his account. “Princess Celestia… Luna… don’t know if they… escaped… or…or…” The guardspony started to choke, and couldn’t continue. I genuinely felt sorry for this fellow, and I said in a low voice “Don’t worry, I’m sure they’re fine. They are the princesses right?” He didn’t acknowledge my question, choosing instead to skip the matter and continue on. “There…should be a map around the… the…wall… of the main dungeon hall… of the entire castle…” The guardspony stopped to take a few laboured breaths, his eye twitching as he did so. “the experiments…required live ponies… and other ‘foreigners’…”. Even though he didn’t have much of a face left, I could see that the guardspony was filled with hatred as he only eye twitched again while he spat out the word “foreigners”. Who were these “foreigners”? Was the one responsible for this insanity and mania associated with them? I had to find out more. Before he could carry on, hoofsteps sounded outside the door! Both of us gasped in mutual shock and fear. He frantically tapped the cage to draw my attention. “There’s not much… time left! Somepony’s going to come here and find you! Quick... hide yourself, and don’t bother about mee...” I didn’t bother disagreeing with him. I was fearful for my life, and bidding him farewell and thanking him for his help, I switched my attention to the dark room around me. I scanned high and low looking for a suitable hiding spot. But all I could see were only the piles of boxes everywhere, in every corner! Anxiety rose in me like high waters in a flood. My vision started to blur slightly with the rush of adrenaline. Even if I were to rely on the shadows in the room, I doubted that the colour of my coat, a light blue, could blend in with the dark shadows! The hoofsteps drew closer, and closer, signalling my impending doom. Each step reverberated in my mind, amplified a hundredfold as I struggled to find any crack, any hole that I could wriggle my way into to avoid detection! I wracked my brains and strained my eyes, hoping that a sudden flash of inspiration could save me, or that some hiding spot would reveal itself in the last minute! There was nothing nearby that I could use to defend myself with, and I doubt hooves alone could defeat the oppressor slowly making his way here! Come on, come on!!!! The sounds were still getting closer to the door… I could almost see the door opening to reveal my tormentor… My breathing had increased in frequency, becoming louder as my breath flowed in and out of the sheets of bandages wrapped around my face. It sounded like an alarm imploring me to speed up, to quickly find a safe spot away from prying eyes…. Desperate, I looked around the room again. Another pile of boxes, another pile of boxes, a table full of odds and ends, a cabinet… A cabinet!!!! At the far end of the room, hidden by the shadows, was a cabinet that seemed to be in disuse. I mentally slapped myself for having missed that out when I had examined the room earlier. Immediately I rushed over to the cabinet, slid one door open and thanked my luck that it was empty, and squeezed myself inside. But a problem soon arose as my wings got me stuck in the small gap! No wings, don’t get me killed! Buck it! I twisted and turned; I wormed and I wiggled, but I was still stuck fast! The hoofsteps were barely just beyond the door and were drawing nearer still! Fear didn’t give me wings to fly, instead it gave me one final burst of strength to cram myself into the musty smelling cramped space of the cabinet. I was going to get another bout of claustrophobia and dizziness, but it beat being stuck in that cage awaiting whatever fate that may have come with whoever was going to come in soon. At least I knew wouldn’t have cramps in my hooves. As I pulled the cabinet door closed, the door to the room creaked open. I left the cabinet door open a crack to hear what was going on. I couldn’t have seen what was going on, because my vision would have been obstructed by the table. “Ah… it seems like you are awake…” A strangely alluring female voice sang. I was utterly confused. The guardspony mentioned that it was a ‘he’ who was causing this mayhem, but this female, whoever she was, clearly seemed to be in charge. Was the guardspony delirious when he spoke to me? “WHERE DID HE GO?!” The voiced suddenly became loud and shrill. It hurt my ears and I winced. Time to think and process information gathered was yanked away as I devoted my attention to what was happening outside. There was no need to see the guardspony to know that he was afraid. “Pppll—ease, I swear I didn’t see him!” I silently thanked him again for his help. “When I woke up, he wasn’t around! T---the ccccage wassss….already empty!” Silence. Somepony did say that silence is golden. But the silence now was unnerving. And like fragile glass, silence can be easily broken. The mare, I assumed, laughed. But she hadn’t heard a good joke. Nor had she seen a funny comic strip. This was maniacal laughter. And it rang and echoed in the dark room, striking fear into my heart and being. She stopped, like a comedian pausing for effect for the audience to enjoy a good laugh. And then she continued in her eerie sing-song manner. “Oh, so that’s the case then? Oh well, I suppose I’d just have to do without you, since you are of no use to me ANYMORE!” The sudden change in her voice nearly caused me to jump and bump the cabinet and almost gave away my position. There was clanging of metal against metal. Tension hung thick in the air. And then the screams began. Throughout it all, laughter rang in harmony with the screams, creating a sickening symphonic cacophony. Rhythm was provided by something very hard striking against flesh and breaking bone with audible cracks and slaps. This was insane! I grit my teeth, and closed my eyes, hoping that somehow, this was just a twisted nightmare conjured by my sub-conscious in my sleep and hoping that I would wake elsewhere where the sun shone bright. But the screams and laughter would break my concentration, jarring me back from fantasy into gruesome reality. I whimpered. And then, mercifully, I passed out.
CorridorsWhen I came to, everything was still as dark as before. It was getting really hard to breathe inside the cabinet. How long had I passed out? Memories from earlier came flooding back. Escaping from my cage. Finding a fellow prisoner beside me in another cage. Finding him deformed beyond imagination. The guardpony’s warnings. And then, some mare, entered the room and ended his life. Screams of pain and terror echoed in my head which had chilled me to no end. I felt sorrow building up in me and silently prayed that the guardpony have a safe passage in the afterlife. Even though he was tortured to death, he never did utter a single word of my whereabouts. Even though there was no order around here, he still upheld his loyalty to the very end. I silently slid the door of the cabinet open to view the room. Nopony was around, so I decided it was relatively safe to leave my safe zone. The room was now dimly lit by a lantern left on the table. Although the light it gave was not strong, it still relieved me to have a light source that could help me find my way out of this dreadful place. After a few moments of contorting my body into ways beyond its natural capability, I finally stepped out from my hiding spot. I stretched my appendages to get the blood flowing again, pins and needles prickling across my body. I suddenly visualised the guardpony’s body and I quickly shook my head to clear the image, not wanting to distract myself. The coppery smell of blood hung heavily in the air as I made my way to his cage. However, the cage was empty when I finally examined it. Only the blood and gibbets spattered across the interior of the cage and leaking out by the sides and onto the floor indicated that the previous occupant had suffered a cruel death. I closed my eyes, thankful that I had been spared the agony of hearing the nightmarish sounds throughout my hiding, and that his battered remains had been cleared. At least you got put out of your misery and got a ticket out of this place… Manoeuvring past the streams of blood on the floor, my hoof came into contact with something cold, hard and sticky. Flinching, I kicked the object across the floor, clattering into the shadows untouched by the light. Oh no. Cursing my clumsiness, I went on the alert, waiting for something to happen or someone to come and investigate the noise. But there was none. I breathed normally again. I went to investigate the object that I had managed to kick halfway across the room in surprise and terror. I trotted across the room to pick up the lantern first. Reaching the table, I could now clearly see that the ‘odds and ends’ were actually pieces of fragmented skulls. I could make out smashed pony skulls, staring soullessly at me and running chills down my back. But there were other bones that did not seem natural to pony physiology. I don’t think ponies had sharp teeth, right? And they should have longer faces too right? Whatever, I’ll worry about that later. I examined the lantern. There was a long strap attached to the base of the lamp that allowed me to slip it around my neck. I noted that the lamp seemed to be magically enchanted since no oil flowed inside of it, and that there was a knob that allowed me to control the brightness of the light. Twisting it showed that the lamp was currently operating at its maximum brightness, which irked me a little. At least I didn’t have to worry about running out of oil or burning my skin. Walking cautiously across the room, and following the trails of blood that marked its path, I came upon the object. It was large hammer, with traces of gore still laced around its large metal head. But this hammer clearly wasn’t designed to whack in nails; it was a broad squarish mallet that was lined with multiple vicious-looking spikes on both ends. The handle was made out of wood that was caked with dry blood. I picked it up with my right hoof to test its weight. It was as heavy as a broomstick, but it would mean that I could defend myself better if the need ever arose. Some relief washed over me as I wasn’t defenceless. Yet, I hoped that I didn’t have to use this. Stowing it under my wing, and giving the room one final glance over for anything useful, I stepped out of the door…. And into the unknown. The corridor I stood in was illuminated by 3 torches set a good distance apart. Wooden jail doors lined up on my left and right, unmoving and unrevealing as they were meant to be designed. A rotting smell hit my nostrils, and the faint hum of flies moving at crack speeds sounded in my ears. Ahead, the corridor morphed into a T-junction, where what appeared to be a painted sign hung from the ceiling, dimly illuminated by the torches. I took one step. And another, slowly increasing my pace. My hoofs clopped and echoed in the long corridor. I focused on the sign ahead of me, trying to make sense of the markings on them. The stench grew stronger, but at least the buzzing had died down somewhat. The lamp bounced gently against my chest as I moved forward unsteadily, trying to control my breathing to minimise my intake of the putrid air. Finally, I reached the sign where I could take a closer look. Blood had been smeared across the white painted carvings, but nonetheless I was still able to make out “<--Main Jail HouseLaboratories” and “--> Main hall”. The messy scratching out of the words "main jail house" and subsequent replacement with "laboratories" piqued my interest, but I decided that obtaining the map of the castle was of upmost importance and probably safer too. I turned right, eyes peeled and ears pricked. The corridors widened and curved as I carried on walking. No torches lit the way though, and gradually, the darkness seemed to consume me as I continued on. I thought about everything that had happened so far. I still had no clue as to what my identity was, but I did know that something terrible has happened to the inhabitants of this castle, judging from what I saw from the predicament of the guardpony and the mare who was clearly insane. I also had no clue to what the guardpony meant when he mentioned “foreigners”, or what he meant by “made the best use of them”, or when he talked about obtaining live subjects. Somehow, thinking about that caused me to shake involuntarily. I hope I didn’t run into anyone else. I just want to get out of this place alive, and go somewhere safe. This place might just turn out to be a living hell… The lamp guided my path as I treaded carefully along the corridor, passing a few tables and chairs, not that they were still usable anyway. Most of the furniture had been broken down and splintered, leaving piles of useless and mouldy wood to decorate the wide corridor. I also realised that the floor had become less rough and had been designed using smoother square tiles, compared to the dungeon areas where the floor was an uncomfortable cobblestone. I must be approaching the main hall. Moonlight poured somewhere from further up from the left. Something also glinted in the darkness up ahead, beyond the corridor I was walking in. Interesting, but should I investigate it? I decided to leave it be, and to continue my search for the castle map. The main hall poorly lit by moonlight trickling in by a barred window above large wooden double doors. By the doors was a tattered scrap of paper, and upon further investigation, revealed it to be the map I desired. Well, part of it actually. While the map showed the way around the maze-like dungeons (Did Equestria really need so many cells?), the part showing the layout of the upper floors were missing entirely, and with that, any possible route I might have been able to consider. I noted with mild amusement that the dungeon layout roughly resembled that of Celestia’s cutie mark. The main jail house formed the central circle while cell blocks like where I had come from formed the wavy rays originating from the central circle. My block, however, was conveniently located near the only exit. At least it’s a start, I thought grimly as I tried the large oaken doors. They groaned as I pushed against them, but apart from moving only a few hairs, they wouldn’t budge. There was a keyhole in the doors around the height of my neck, so I had to find a key to proceed, but where? The shining object in the darkness, could it be it? I shook my head. It would be too easy, but it wouldn’t hurt if I checked it out. I approached the area where I thought I saw the glint and let the light of my lamp fall to the ground. Then, I started crawling around.Tile after tile of stone slabs only came into the little circle cast by the glow of the lamp as I ambled lamely like a dog trying to sniff out where it last buried its bone. The occasional crack in stone or stain showed up, but nothing unusual popped up for a while. Found it! Jutting out from a crack in the floor was a silver key. It produced an eerie glow as my lamp shone over it, glinting brightly even in the poor illumination. I gently used my hooves to tease it out of the crack, as if the slightest rough motion would cause it to shatter into a million unidentifiable pieces. After all, it would be my only way out of here. I think. Trying not to get my hopes too high, I went back to the giant doors and tried to fit the key into the lock. No such luck; the key was too small to fit into the lock. I cursed my stupidity for not having realised that earlier. I wondered which lock did the key turn in. Turning the key in my hooves, I noticed that faintly scratched on the long handle of the key were the words “Jailhouse Key”. I gulped audibly as I fearfully recounted the image of the guardpony before his demise. Who knew what horrors may lie beyond that block? In denial, and trying my luck again, I tried to jam the key into the keyhole again. Only to meet with the same result as before: Nothing. Guess that means I gotta head to the laboratories then, maybe I'll find something useful there... Sitting on my haunches, I took out the tattered map and took a good look at the route I had to take to get to the laboratories/Jailhouse block. I didn't have to take too much time though, there was already a trail marked in red leading from my block to the labs. Odd... I turned the map over and was surprised to see a message scrawled on the back in the same blood red ink. It was addressed to me: Hello there! I hope you had a great nap! However, I don't appreciate ponies who don't show me gratitude in taking care of them, after all, wasn't your cage the most wonderful place to sleep in? So, I made sure that you learn a good lesson about manners and decided to lock you in the dungeons for a little while. Don't worry! You can find the key to unlock these big doors in the labs! Be careful though, there are many surprises waiting for you! I'll be waiting for you when you're ready! Love --L Well, at least I know that mare has clearly lost it, and her name was L. She was nice enough to warn me about the stuff ahead though. Grimly, I shoved the map and key under my right wing, and took out the hammer, hoping to get some comfort from cradling the weapon. I hope you're as useful as you look I turned to face the corridor where I came from and started walking. Once again I was consumed by the darkness.
Shock and AweAfter what felt like hours crawling through thick inky blackness with a dim lantern to light my way, I finally reached the central prison block. According to the scrap of paper that served as a map, the central prison block was a large circular structure with only one entrance. Several smaller cells were located inside, and I assumed that they were once designed to house the most dangerous criminals in Equestria. Now, I shuddered to think what they were used for now. Like the exit from the dungeons, the entrance to the central prison block was guarded by two large oaken doors. But while the exit was in excellent condition despite the apparent lack of use of this place, the doors to the entrance had succumbed to the damp atmosphere of the dungeon, decaying and rotting. One door hinged awkwardly from its frame, but revealed nothing inside the block apart from thick darkness. Two lanterns hung from hooks at the sides of the doors, the only light sources lighting my field of vision apart from my own. I tried to push open the doors, but they held fast. Even the broken door wouldn’t move a bit. I thought about knocking down the doors using the mallet, but I started feeling uneasy about that idea. She said there was going to be ‘surprises’ waiting for me, so should I risk it? Buck it, it’s either getting in there and making my way out of here, or I’ll probably end up like the doors to the central block, rotting and decaying. I slid the mallet from my wing to my left right hoof and gave it a few good swings, testing its weight and my strength. Here goes nothing. Gripping the mallet with both hoofs, I brought the mallet high above my head, and swung it onto the rotting half open door. The door crumbled with a loud crash, sending clouds of sawdust and splinters flying in every direction, pricking my coat. I coughed and sputtered as the sawdust settled down, shaking off the bits of rotten wood that had landed on me as I did. I had made a sizable hole in the doors, and part of the rotting doors had collapsed as it did so, creating a way for me to enter into the central prison block. I pricked my ears, trying to sense any movement that may be coming my way, tensing myself should I suddenly face some monstrosity so that I would be able to spring away from danger. But danger did not rear its ugly head, and so stepping over the remains of the door, I entered the prison block. Visibility was worse; I could only make out a tight circle around me. But a closer inspection of the wall near where the doors stood revealed a wick- those sort that one would find on candles. But I realised that these were specially enchanted from its ever-so-faint-glow, so one may light this wicks as many times as he likes. Lifting off the lantern off my neck, I unscrewed the top and fed the wick to the enchanted flame. As soon as the flame touched the wick, the flame immediately started running across the wick, travelling across the diameter of the cell block, leaving a fiery trail at its wake. It would have been rather pleasing to watch, had I been under less dire situations. I screwed back the lid on my lantern and hung it around my neck, watching the spectacular display of pyrotechnics. The light curved up and down in a series of bright mountains and valleys. At the end of each peak, a blue torch was lit which bathed the room with an eerie light. Each light then revealed a large capsule with glass sheaths covering metallic foundations, with many pieces of complicated machinery that I could not put my hoof on. Wires jutted out of said machinery, and the glass sheaths were bloody and cracked in many places. And then the fire lit its way to the centre of the block, and illuminated a bright blue light housed within a large glass cylinder. The sudden glare caused me to flinch and squeeze my eyes shut as I had been temporarily struck blind by the intensity of the light. Slowly I opened my eyes… And wished I hadn’t. The entire place had seemingly borne witness to a disturbing ritual. Beds that were designed with thick restraints adorning their frames were scattered across the room, dried blood coating almost every spot on them and multiple places on the floor. They surrounded a small wooden rectangular examination table, similarly coated with giblets and dried blood. Multiple medical solutions and instruments were arranged haphazardly on the table, none of them having been cleaned nor used in a long time. A small notebook was placed at one corner of the table, its pages dog-earred from a probably long service. Pages were folded and stuck in all directions. My attention then directed to the capsule structures with the glass sheaths. They were surprisingly free of any foul substance, despite their proximity to the area of the carnage. However, the leftmost one had a large figure lying face down on the floor. So strange it was that I didn’t know how to describe it, since it was unlike anything I’ve seen before. It didn’t seem to be alive, so I left it alone and consulted the small book upon the table. I powered down the lantern as I did so, seeing that there was no need for it for now. The book revealed a small card containing several pictures of the most bizarre creatures I have ever seen. A few resembled ponies, for they did have limbs belonging to ponies, but the rest of their bodies were… something alien… Alien… The guardspony did mention something about aliens. This perked up my interest as I tried my best to read through the contents of the small book, a daunting task since each page was heavily stained a dirty crimson colour. I have been very much inspired by Greek Mythology in the creation of the perfect symbiote in order to achieve my true goal. Below this short paragraph is a description of each creature which I will attempt to recreate before starting upon what I believe would benefit both humans and ponies or possibly other races alike. Centaurs- a creature with a man’s upper body, and a ponies lower body, inclusive of all four limbs. Retains the human’s mind and gives it full control over the rest of the body, including the pony’s lower body. This would be a large challenge as I have to devise a way to conjoin the two large masses together in the quickest time possible. However, with ******** (unreadable due to bloodstains) gic, I should have relative success in holding major organs together and quickly stitching up the bodies together. At the same time with the same magic, according to previous tests performed by me, I should be able to manipulate the blood types such that the human’s and pony’s do not reject each other. Minotaurs- a somewhat peculiar goal because it does not contribute directly towards my final goal. However, I have not forgotten about the minority bull population that had their origins in Appleloosa. According the Greek mythology, it was supposed to be an aggressive creature with the head of the bull and body of a human. No doubt this would be a challenge as the bull’s neck is certainly much larger than what a human body can accommodate. However, having her by my side is certainly paying off for her magic may most probably be able to solve this physically impossible task. Magic, when incorporated into science, is most wonderful. Fauns- Like centaurs, except that they only include the pony’s hind legs. This is a slightly more delicate operation to handle as the human body must be able to establish a sense of balance, if not mobility will not be attained. However, if I should ever reach this stage, my abilities to handle magical operations and stitchings should be competent enough. (Note to self- In order to maintain anaesthetic levels due to difficulties in synthesising and secrecy, it may be useful to implement thick restraints to hold down each subject, as well as either cutting out tongues or stitching their mouths shut.) Brony- The ultimate goal of this series of experiments, the one true symbiotic sentient life form…. (The rest is undecipherable) I paused my reading, shaken and disturbed by the manuscript. My mind was racing to gather all the information I had gathered so far. These humans, were also taken together with ponies for these twisted experiments? Who was doing this? No doubt it must be that mare who had imprisoned me in the first place; I must have been selected to be the next test subject, and the guardpony was her ragdoll to try out her various disgusting procedures! But what was this ‘ultimate goal’, called a ‘brony’? No doubt, that going by the list of monstrosities listed in this book, a brony might just be another hideous creature. Flipping through the text, I hoped to gain some answers. Instead, it came to rest on a page where a cut out in the shape of a key was inserted. Intrigued, I pulled out the cut out. There were a few words scribbled in red on the wrinkled paper “It’s in his head; but don’t lose your head!” It ended off with a happy face childishly scrawled on the remainder space on the paper. What does it mean? Who’s ‘head’ was it refering to? I thought. There was movement to my left. I whipped my head to see the body slumped on the floor stirring. I thought it was dead! The creature fitted the description of one of the creatures mentioned in the book. It's a bucking Minotaur!, I thought as I watched the figure rise to its feet, as slowly stretched out to its full height, a good 3 heads above me. The eerie blue light glinted off its dangerously long and curvy horns protruding from the top of its head, and illuminated sparks of primal hate and fury in its eyes. Clouds were blown out of its nose in loud grunts. It tottered a little, but regained its balance immediately. I was still rooted to the same spot with a mixture of both awe and horror, mouth slightly agape at this sight. And it started charging towards me! Beds bounced off and flew in every direction as the Minotaur charged towards me, roaring as it did so! Its human hands were raised and clawing towards me, ready to grab me. Its long legs took long strides that kicked the heavy metal beds away to clear a path toward me! Come on, move! My legs were slow to respond, and it was only by the slightest of margins that I managed to duck out of the way of the Minotaur’s flaying hands! Nimbly, I flew over the table, and realised that the Minotaur was blocking my exit from the room! With a terrible roar, the Minotaur shook and glared at me, hell bent on killing. It lowered its great head and aimed the lethal horns at me. It was going to gore me to death! I threw myself to the side as the Minotaur displayed stunning versatility by vaulting over the table, knocking over multiple instruments and medical solutions as it did so. Luck seemed to be on my side as the Minotaur shaved past my coat, and made contact with the rough bricks of the prison wall. Dust shook off the old ceiling as the room shook violently from the impact. It gave a cry of pain, and tottered about, disoriented, clutching its wounded head as it did so. The manuscript! I must have it! It was lying on the floor a few metres away from me, open and pages sticking out. I leapt at it, one hoof outstretched to snatch it away. Bang! Pain exploded from my chest as the Minotaur displayed a frighteningly fast recovery and butted me in the chest. Disoriented, I crashed into the sea of metal beds, pain now shooting through every side of me. I slumped onto the ground, breathing hard. Come on, move! MOVE! But I couldn't summon the strength to push myself up from the bloody ground. Pain lanced through my body as I tried to exert my strength to lift myself off the ground. I could only watch as the Minotaur stomped towards me, each step causing the ground to tremble. It’s black eyes locked onto my terrified ones, clouds shooting out of each nostril with each powerful breath it took. For a disgusting creature like this, it had pearly white teeth that showed as it bared them at me. I realised some of them had been sharpened to a razor sharpness. I could almost feel those terrible choppers land on my soft neck, ripping out the tender flesh and cutting tendons and muscle fibres within and severed blood vessels spurting its contents in all directions… A meaty hand grabbed me by the neck, hefting me up easily to the Minotaur’s eye-level. My air supply was suddenly cut shot as I met the black eyes that seemed to say “Time to meet your doom, pony!” I flayed uselessly against the air, my hind legs thrusting at nothing, and my front hooves trying their best to prise the thick fingers off my neck. I gagged and twisted, but to no avail. My vision was beginning to dim when I suddenly remembered the hammer stowed in my wings. Bringing my right hoof to my wings, I released my hold on the hammer and let it fall to my hoof. With a final desperate burst of energy, I swung the hammer towards the creature! With a sharp cry of pain, the Minotaur relinquished its hold on me, and I fell into a heap onto the ground. I clutched my neck, coughing as I fought to regain my breath. The book lay to my side, and I grabbed it. The creature still howled in pain, and I saw that my strike had caused the hammer to become lodged in its right eye. Blood oozed in copious amounts and dribbled down its face, and the Minotaur threw its arms about and stomped around in a blind rage to quell the pain. But where was to the key to the exit?
